


Ablaze: A Frozen Alternate History AU

by im_fairly_witty



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Good Hans, also accurate nokk lore, and Hans' character didn't break halfway through the first movie aka he was actually a decent guy, and that's PRIME character expansion opportunity, as well as a water horse sometimes, cuz nokks in legend appear as young men violinists, the spirits have to try again with the next generation of Agnarr and Iduna's line, time for an adventure, what if Elsa hadn't survived the first movie, what if au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21564460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_fairly_witty/pseuds/im_fairly_witty
Summary: Fifteen years ago Anna stayed behind with Hans at the castle when Elsa ran away from her coronation party. Without Hans at the ice palace to intervene, Elsa was assassinated by Duke Weselton’s henchmen, cursing Arendelle under a harsh permanent winter triggered by her murder. Elsa’s spirit is rumored to still haunt the ice palace that looms empty and forbidding, high up on the mountain.Queen Anna and Prince Regent Hans now have a son who was born with the ability to create fire, the unbalanced elemental spirits having decided to bless a second descendant of Agnar and Iduna’s with magic after Elsa’s failure to restore balance. When Prince Taavi turns fourteen he starts to hear two voices singing to him far in the distance that no one else can hear, beckoning him away from his overprotective parents. A quest that he is encouraged to take by a certain nøkk he unexpectedly meets on the castle grounds.***DISCONTINUED***
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	1. Water

“You never let me do anything!” Taavi shouted, shoving over an ornate side table that fell with a satisfying crack against the marble floor. “I’m a _prince_ but you treat me like a prisoner in our own palace! I just want to leave and explore and live a normal life!”

Taavi could feel the ever present heat inside him building, racing so close to the tips of his gloved fingers that he could feel a thrill of fear under his anger.

In the distance, the back of his mind, he could hear the singing. The singing no one else could hear that had been haunting him for weeks, making him even more angry and scared.

“Taavi, please, we need to calm you down, the room is getting very hot, can you feel it?” Father said, patiently stepping closer, loosening his cravat as he wiped sweat off his brow. From worry or heat Taavi couldn’t tell. “You don’t want mother’s favorite paintings to burn do you? You’ve been doing so good staying in control this week.”

“Well maybe I _do_ want to burn something.” Taavi shot back, but he chewed the inside of his cheek as he crossed his arms, biting hard as he willed the prickly heat to retreat back into his bones. He _hadn’t_ noticed the room getting hotter, and as much as he wished he could just let go, he really didn’t actually like being out of control. Especially when it made Mother sad.

She was already sad so often.

“There, that’s better.” Father said, cautiously dropping to one knee as Taavi glared at him, arms still folded tightly against the heat. “Let me see your gloves?”

Taavi closed his eyes, biting down even harder as he forced the heat back into himself, imagining the cool black silk of his gloves chasing it back like his parents had taught him.

When he felt safe again he swallowed and huffily held his hands out for his father to see.

“Remember Taavi: control, don’t be controlled.” Father said, gingerly touching the silk like he was checking whether a pan was too hot, then tugging the gloves snugly in place. “Enchanted gloves will only do so much for you, you have to be the master of yourself to truly be safe.” Father sighed. “I’m sorry canceling our hunting trip upset you, I know it’s frustrating to be stuck inside by yourself.”

“No you don’t.” Taavi said, looking away. He’d been planning to use the chance outside the castle walls to chase after the singing voice in his mind, to see once and for all if it took him anywhere. “At least you had all your brothers to play with, and Mother had Aunt Elsa. I’m all alone.”

Father laughed wryly, moving to sit against the wall. He patted the ground next to him and Taavi reluctantly sat down next to him, setting his hands palm down against the floor to feel the cool marble through the silk of his gloves.

“Having twelve older brothers is much less fun than it sounds like, I promise.” Father said, ruffling Taavi’s hair, the same dark ginger shade as his own. “And your mother never really knew her sister since she was always ill. You’re lucky to be an only child Taavi, your mother and I didn’t want you to ever feel forgotten, you’re the most important thing in our lives.”

Taavi pulled his knees to his chest. He wished he _could_ disappear, escape from his parent’s constant hovering. But if he ever tried saying things like that Mother got so sad.

Controlling the heat had always been hard, but it had gotten so much harder lately. It felt like fire was constantly crackling under his skin, begging to be released. It seemed like even the smallest things could set Taavi off these days, and it was scary to feel like he wasn’t in control anymore. His own mind was playing tricks on him with the phantom singing too, making him wonder if he really was going insane.

“Do you feel like you’ve cooled off?” Father asked, looking down at him.

“Yes.” Taavi said glumly, resting his chin on his knees.

“Good.” Father said warmly, “Remember-“

“Control, don’t be controlled.” Taavi recited wearily, wiping his nose. “Since we aren’t going hunting can I just be alone tonight please?”

“To do what?” Father asked, looking a little...concerned? ...wary?

_To try not to accidentally set fire to the next person who annoyed him and contemplate whether or not he was going insane from the comfort of his bedroom._

“Just, I don’t know, to be alone.” Taavi said quietly. “I just don’t want to be around anyone right now.”

He could see father biting his lip in indecision, but then he smiled, ruffling Taavi’s hair again. “Alright, you can have the evening to yourself. Promise you’ll come get me if you start feeling lonely or too hot again though?”

“I promise.” Taavi said, pushing himself to his feet and tightly folding his arms again out of habit.

“We love you Taavi,” Father said, getting to his feet and pulling him into a hug. “I know things are difficult right now, but your mother and I are doing everything we can to fix this.”

Taavi chewed his lip as he hesitated. Father and Mother were always looking for magic solutions abroad to break his fire curse, they might know why only he heard the singing voice coming to him from the horizon outside his window...

Or it might just be him going crazy, and it would worry his parents enough for them to lock him in his room permanently.

“I will.” Taavi lied, pulling out of the hug. “Can we go hunting tomorrow?”

“I have an export council tomorrow, but I’ll tell my advisors to clear an evening and night for us as soon as they can.” Father said, retying his green silk cravat and tucking it back under the embroidered lapel of his white suit jacket. “We’ll get out into the woods soon, I promise.”

It always took a few minutes for Taavi to walk back to his wing of the palace, but it was easy to see when he was getting close. No valued portraits hung on the walls, no flammable heirlooms or artifacts decorated tables or shelves. The servants had given up replacing wallpaper and wood paneling that had trailing scorch marks in the shape of a child’s hand on it years ago, instead periodically brushing the walls down with something that made them smell bad, but also less likely to burn when Taavi had nightmares that awoke him to flaming bedsheets.

Something that always disturbed others far more than it did him. Mother had told him she’d found him curled up sound asleep in a roaring fireplace for the first time when he was two and it had nearly killed her with fear.

Now when he slept in the fireplace—usually on nights he felt especially lonely or afraid of setting the castle on fire in his sleep—he was careful to make sure his bedroom door was tightly locked first.

Taavi could hear the imaginary singing in his head get louder the moment he closed his bedroom door behind him, calling to him from beyond his tightly locked balcony doors. He ignored it, sitting in front of the crackling fireplace instead and staring into the flames.

He needed a plan, anything to stop the singing, and as far as he could tell he had depressingly few options. He could tell his parents about the voice in his head and risk being locked up, or he could continue to ignore them and get more and more upset, which he knew would lead to things burning.

...or he could try chasing after the voice like every fiber of his being was telling him to, they sounded _so_ real, but his parents would never allow that. They’d probably just say that-

Taavi blinked, looking up as he realized everything was silent. He turned to look at the closed balcony windows.

No singing. How long had things been quiet before he’d noticed?

Taavi breathed quietly, shoulders unconsciously tensed as he waited for the singing to return. After weeks of hearing it constantly everything felt unexpectedly still and wrong with it gone.

He nearly bit through his lip as a long wailing note broke the silence, the fire beside him jumping as he did. It wasn’t singing this time, but the piercing cry of a violin.

And it didn’t sound far away like the singing. This sound was very close.

A gust of wind shook the balcony doors, rattling at the lock like something invisible was trying to get into his room from the darkness beyond. The violin sound dripped down a scale of notes, fluttering into a tune Taavi didn’t recognize. Something that sounded nothing like the jaunty fiddles he’d heard at parties. It sounded more...longing.

Taavi could feel heat building quickly in his chest and folded his arms tightly against himself as he stood, gripping his arms as he chased it back. The sound was probably just one of the servants playing violin on the grounds, there was no way it could have anything to do with the singing disappearing, could it?

Taavi crept across the room toward the balcony doors, gloved hand hesitating at the lock as he listened to the fluid sound of the violin flowing through the glass. The fleeting thought of going and getting Father crossed his mind, which was ridiculous. He could handle a violin player.

He tripped the lock, opening the door and stepping out onto the balcony. A gust of frigid wind brushed past him, whipping up a dusting of snowflakes before disappearing into the night. Taavi shivered, letting the heat inside him grow enough to chase back the night’s chill, melting his footsteps through the snowdrift on the balcony.

There was a tall ledge of built up snow on the railing, blocking his view. Taavi looked nervously back to the balcony door before tugging off a single black silk glove. He stretched out his fingers, letting heat spill down his arm and toward the snow which instantly melted off the railing.

He smiled a bit at the tiny rush it gave him, he could tell that with a bit more of a push he could actually make _flame_ , not just heat. Something he purposefully hadn’t done in years.

Taavi swallowed instead, hurriedly plunging his hand into a snowdrift instead to cool it off. When it was safe he tugged his glove securely back on and walked up to the railing, looking down.

The grounds outside the palace were dark, things were always dark in the eternal winter of Arendelle, but bright patches of yellow light from the castle windows painted across snow, rocks, and long dead topiary bushes killed by the long winter. Most importantly in this moment however, was the light from his own balcony, which lit a patch of the frozen stream that had always run past his bedroom window.

Or at least it had always been frozen before. Taavi’s eyes widened as he realized the ice had turned to a dark ribbon of moving water that gurgled and twisted across the ground. Even stranger was the tall willowy man sitting on the riverbank with his feet in the water, playing a violin alone in the dark.

Taavi was about to silently retreat to his room when the man looked up at him, song cutting off mid-note as he stood. Taavi jolted, gripping the stone railing as the man’s gaze met his. Even from the railing Taavi could see the man’s eyes were so blue they looked white, nearly as if they were glowing in the dark. A curtain of dark silvery hair fell across his eyes like a horse’s mane.

No, no, _no._ This was _bad_. This had to be magic. Taavi had heard too many bedtime stories not to know better.

“You’re Prince Taavi, right?” The man called, catching Taavi off guard with the sound of a distinctly normal and un-magical sounding voice.

“Y-yes?” Taavi called back, folding his arms tightly, still trying to decide whether or not to make a dash for his room. Magic or not he still was a prince, he’d been trained to be dignified in any situation, even ones that were definitely cursed. “What are you doing?”

“Playing violin.” The man said, raising an eyebrow and holding up the instrument as if Taavi hadn’t already seen it. “I know you’ve seen a violin before.”

“I know what a violin is,” Taavi said, “I mean what are you doing here on the palace grounds. At night. Aren’t you freezing?”

The man’s clothes looked thin, and if Taavi wasn’t mistaken he was barefoot in the icy river water.

“As long as the water’s wet it doesn’t much matter to me what the temperature is.” The man said with a shrug, then smiled up at him. “You don’t mind hot or cold much either, do you Taavi?”

Taavi swallowed, taking a step back. Only the servants were supposed to know about his curse.

“Who are you?” Taavi demanded, his nerves getting into his voice, trickling a dangerous heat down his arms that began to heat the stone railing under his hands.

“Vand.” said Vand, making a graceful complicated kind of bow Taavi had never seen before. The violin had disappeared from his hands but Taavi hadn’t seen him put it down. “I’d say I’m at your service but, ironically enough, I'm the one that’s in need of your assistance.”

“Your name is ‘water’?” Taavi asked, a creeping suspicion starting to dawn on him as his brain fit several bedtime stories together. “You’re...a nøkk...aren’t you?”

“Ah, smart kid.” Vand said with a smile, taking a few step closer but never stepping out of the river, his feet staying on the surface of the dark rushing water as easily as if it were still solid ice. “Just like your aunt.”

“I don’t have an aunt.” Taavi said, leaning forward over the railing, his head spinning a little at his guess being confirmed.

A nøkk was a powerful water spirit that sometimes appeared in the form of a horse, but the stories said they could look like a man with a violin if they wanted. But why would a nøkk come to _him_?

“Don’t tell me your parents haven’t told you about Elsa?” Vand said, a dark look crossing his face, “They can’t have hushed up everything about her.”

“She died before I was born, she was so sickly she hardly ever even left her room.” Taavi said, his interest now thoroughly peaked.

Hearing anything about Aunt Elsa was such a rare occurrence in the palace. Taavi had only ever been able to find a single portrait of her, hidden away in an attic he’d discovered when he’d gone exploring. It was a painting of her and Mother when they had both been little children, back before Mother had gotten the white streak in her hair “from her nerves”, as the servants always said. Elsa had looked so kind and happy. Even Mother had looked happy back then.

“ _Sickly_?” Vand said with a humorless bark of laughter. “Your aunt is stronger than all the humans of this entire kingdom put together.”

Taavi did not miss Vand’s use of present tense.

“You say that like she’s still alive.” Taavi said urgently, not noticing that nearly all the snow on the balcony around him had melted by now, the snowmelt pouring over the edges of the balcony. “Do you know her? Do you know what happened to her? Why no one ever talks about her?”

Because aside from the painting of Aunt Elsa and Mother hidden in the attic Taavi had also found an old chest that had belonged to Aunt Elsa. An entire trunk filled with neatly folded pairs of blue gloves. Just like the black ones he always wore.

He’d rushed to ask his parents about them, but by the time he’d succeeded in dragging them back across the castle to the attic the trunk had vanished. Taavi had not missed the way the servants avoided looking him in the eye as his parents made unconvincing excuses as to why he seemed to have either imagined or lost an entire trunk of silk gloves. 

“Good questions,” Vand said, rubbing the back of his neck. “And I can answer them, but only if you come with me.”

“Come with you? Where?” Taavi asked, pulling back from the railing a bit as his sense of caution returned to him.

Stories about nøkk were never very consistent as to whether they were friendly, or if they would drown you the moment you got within arm’s reach. With the stream currently mysteriously unfrozen and distinctly drown-in-able this did not seem like a good time to try his luck without anything else to go on.

“You have been hearing the singing, haven’t you?” Vand said, looking north and then back up at Taavi. “I’m here to take you to it. You haven’t come.”

An unexpected lump appeared in Taavi’s throat, “I haven’t been imagining it?” he asked, his voice cracking just a little, “It’s real? I’m not going crazy?”

“Not by a long shot.” Vand said soberly. “And we need to leave now. You have magic for a reason and you need to start using it.”

“You know why I’m cursed?” Taavi asked, eyes wide.

“I do know, but I don’t know _here_.” Vand said, pushing his hair back with a sigh. “I know everything that’s ever happened in the world, water has memory. But I have to find the _right_ water to remember it.”

“So you only remember what’s happened in a certain place?” Taavi asked, confused.

“I know you nearly drowned in this stream when you were three,” Vand said, gesturing down to the water he stood on. “It was during a summer that was just warm enough to thaw it for a week, which is why you have a fear of drowning.”

Vand’s voice sounded oddly detached and his gaze seemed fixed in the middle distance, as if he were reading a book in his mind.

“And I know your mother once sat on this riverbank while braiding flowers into a crown when she was a child. And I know four hundred years ago this stream was a river and your ancestor dropped his ring into it while they were beginning to build this castle. And I know hundreds of thousands of years ago this wasn’t a stream at all, but an ocean.”

Vand blinked, looking back at Taavi with a smile, the normal warmth coming back into his voice. “But I'll forget those specific things once I leave here and go to different water that has different memories. I know why you have magic, and I know what it is you have to do with it, and I know what happened to your aunt. But you have to come with me to where I can show you, and to do that you’re going to have to use your magic.

"I’ve been sent to protect you, come with me and we can fix everything, but if you stay here things will only get worse. You know I’m telling the truth, you can feel it can’t you?”

Taavi could indeed feel it. It was like a string running through his chest was pulling him northward, demanding he go with Vand. In that moment he couldn’t even imagine going back into his room, trying to lock out the singing again now that he knew what it meant. Or rather, now that he knew there really was a way to find out what it meant. Nothing else felt like it mattered if it meant he could solve this.

“I-I don’t know how to use my magic. I don’t know how to control it.” Taavi said, arms folded tighter than ever. He felt like he was one step away from leaping over the edge of a cliff he would never be able to climb back up, and he desperately wanted to jump.

“Well lucky for you I know exactly who we can visit to help you, and it happens to be our first stop anyway,” Vand said.

“The first stop being?” Taavi asked, already itching to leave despite his best efforts to seem reserved.

“Your aunt of course,” Vand said casually, but Taavi could see the gleam in his pale eyes.

“So she _is_ alive?” Taavi asked breathlessly, one leg already over the balcony as he started to climb down the thick dead ivy that covered the castle’s stone wall. The ice and snow crusted there melting away to provide him easy hand and footholds as he scrambled down.

As far as he could tell he really had no choice but to go with Vand, and he had to do it now before he changed his mind or Father came looking for him.

“Not exactly.” Vand said, his face becoming serious again as Taavi joined him on the ground, walking right up to the edge of the stream.

Up close Vand seemed even more subtly otherworldly, his pale skin almost translucent looking, as if there were a glow emanating from inside him.

“Elsa is trapped in between places.” Vand said, “But for me to remember more I have to take you to where she was killed.”

“O-okay.” Taavi said, only choking a little on the word.

A cold gust of wind swept past them, kicking up an eddy of snowflakes and dead leaves that whisked around Taavi and Vand, pushing them toward the north. Vand looked intently the way the wind had come, as if listening to it.

“Gaurds are coming.” Vand said quietly. “We need to leave now.”

Taavi’s heart was racing, heat rising in him and sending the snow around him melting down in a ring to the dead grass beneath. This was it, he was leaving, finally escaping, he was finally _finally_ going to get answers about _everything_.

“Are we going to run?” Taavi asked in a hushed voice.

“How are you at horseback riding?” Vand asked, cracking his knuckles with a smile.

“I’m pretty good at it. Do you have a- ohhh.” Taavi trailed off at the sound of a splash, mouth open as he stared at the huge shimmering horse now standing in the stream beside him, far bigger than any of the beige ponies with the black and white manes they had in the royal stables. Its watery body was completely translucent, its eyes glowed a spectral white, and it shook its watery mane like it was silently laughing at his surprise.

Knowing Vand was a nøkk was one thing, seeing him like _this_ was another entirely. Taavi was suddenly acutely aware that if he chose to climb up onto Vand’s back the water spirit could easily kill him any moment he wanted to. And by drowning no less.

“You’ll stay in shallow water?” Taavi asked weakly, his throat suddenly feeling very dry. “Please? I can’t swim.”

A stiff breeze pushed against his back and Vand looked up, pricking his ears and pawing impatiently at the stream with one watery hoof. _Hurry_.

Taavi could hear voices coming now, the gaurds would be here any second.

He glanced up at his bedroom balcony one last time and then stepped into the stream. Vand knelt one of his front legs to let Taavi get a grip on his watery mane--which felt cold and smoother than silk, but deceptively solid--and then stood as Taavi swung up onto his back. Taavi settled himself exactly like the royal horse master had taught him to the few times they’d practiced riding bareback. Being able to look down and see his feet on the other side of the horse however was a deeply unsettling experience that Taavi quickly decided not to repeat if he could help it.

“Let’s go.” Taavi whispered, crouching low to the water horses’ back. Definitely because it was good riding technique and not because every bit of this absolutely terrified him.

Vand shook his head with an unearthly whinny and lunged forward, hooves skipping across the surface of the water as he dashed up the stream and away from the palace grounds far faster than any horse should have been able to gallop, forcing Taavi to truly pay attention to his posture and wind both his hands tighter into the watery mane just to stay on.

Once they finally hit a rhythm and Taavi was able to do more than numbly scramble to hold on he looked up, squinting as the freezing wind whipped past them. He caught the sight of them racing through the canal that ran through town, and then just as quickly they were riding into the darkness of the snowy forest, the river water rushing loud and cold beneath them with only the moon overhead to light their way.

But even with his eyes tearing up from the frigid wind and only the night sky to see by, Taavi could still tell where they were headed.

Straight up the forbidden mountain. A place even he knew was filled with the darkest of magics.


	2. Ice

As much as Taavi complained about being trapped in the castle he was no stranger to the outside world. Even when he’d had trouble controlling his fire, his parents had always insisted it was more important for him to go out and learn to secretly control it than to live behind a locked door.

This had led to more close calls than Taavi could remember, but it meant he’d traveled across Arendelle his whole childhood to see the towns and meet the people he would one day be responsible for, even visiting his many uncles down in the Southern Isles once or twice. Taavi had seen snowy countryside and secluded woods, icy villages and bustling cities.

But none of his past journeys could have prepared him for this, to be clinging to to back of a nøkk in the dead of night, desperately struggling not to slip as it carried him at a breathless speed along the only running river in Arendelle, straight up the forbidden mountain that had always loomed high over his own home.

He’d been in forests before, but somehow the dark frost-blasted pines and skeletal dead birches that reached their branches across the river above felt as if they were watching him. Taavi couldn’t know exactly why, but something deep inside could tell something was wrong with this forest, and it wasn’t just the tales he’d grown up hearing of all the dark magic that roamed these woods looking for victims foolish enough to cross into the shadows. 

“Vand, hold on,” Taavi called, his fingers aching from his death grip on the water horse’s mane. “I’m going to fall off, slow down.”

Vand slowed, pranced to a stop. His hooves glancing off the liquid surface of the river as he looked back at Taavi quizzically.

“Sorry, I just need a break, I’m not used to going this fast.” Taavi said, swinging his leg over Vand’s back to dismount. “Just let me walk a minute.”

He didn’t remember until an instant too late that Vand was standing on the surface of a snowmelt river. The cold of the water felt like a physical blow as Taavi fell under the surface, submerged in a blindingly frigid instant. His entire body locked up, the heat inside him snuffing out in shock.

Something clamped around his wrist and Taavi felt himself yanked up. He gasped as his head burst to the surface, the cold of the air made worse by the cold of the water. He looked up to see Vand had caught hold of his wrist, the water horse dragging him to the snowy riverbank in a few watery strides.

Had Taavi ever been this cold in his life? He numbly searched for the flame inside him, finding only a small ember. It had never felt this small. Is this how normal people felt?

Taavi coughed as he struggled to move, his muscles stiff and useless feeling after only seconds under the water.

“Call your fire.” Vand commanded, now crouching beside him in human form. “You’re going to freeze if you don’t.”

“Y-y-you said y-you’d stay in sh-shallow w-water.” Taavi said through chattering teeth, trying to focus hard enough to summon any warmth he could, chasing the barest flicker of heat in his chest as he shivered violently. 

“Well next time don’t throw yourself off when we’re still in the middle of the river. Humans drown so easily, you should know better.” Vand said, sounding altogether too casual considering the situation. 

Vand looked up and around them, then pointed through the trees. “It’s just as well we stopped though. This as far as I can take you by river, it gets too steep further up and I won’t be able to carry you. Beyond those trees you’ll see a path. Walk it and it will lead you to the palace of ice, when you reach the front gate go left until you see a pool of water and I’ll see you there.”

“A-a what?” Taavi chattered, rubbing his arms. He was sure if he took off his wet gloves his skin would be turning blue, but Vand didn’t seem to be very concerned.

“A pool of water.”

“No, th-the ice palace.”

“Yes, you’ll know it when you see it I imagine.” Vand said. “Whatever you do _don’t_ knock on the door, I have to be the one to bring you in the back way. And be sure not to-”

“Hey! You get away from him!”

Taavi jumped as a booming voice cut through the night air. Vand disappeared in front of him, vanishing back into the water in an instant. Taavi turned toward the rough sound of snow crunching underfoot and saw a dark hulking figure looming toward him. Some half delusional, too-cold-to-think-straight part of him nearly threw himself into the river after Vand to escape the approaching figure.

“Are you friend or fae?” The figure demanded, hoisting the greenish yellow light of a lantern between them. They were cloaked in layers of thick woolen clothing and frost, two eyes peering at him suspiciously from between a scarf and a hat.

“S-s-sorry?” Taavi asked, trying to stand and failing miserably, his legs seizing up weakly and tumbling him into the snow.

“Oh great, you are human aren’t you?” The figure said, yanking down his frosted over scarf to reveal the face of a very concerned looking man.

He yanked off one of his thick leather mittens and looked over his shoulder, giving a sharp whistle with two fingers. A moment later a saddled reindeer came bounding into view through the snow, pulling up beside the man who started unbuckling pack straps.

“Yes he’s human, Sven.” The man said, presumably to the reindeer, as he rifled through a pack. “And he’s about to freeze to death, looks like the nøkk dragged him up here.”

The man shook out a thick blanket and wrapped it around Taavi, hefting him into his arms and quickly carrying him away from the dark rushing water of the river.

“W-wait, I have to talk to him.” Taavi said, trying to turn to look back. It almost felt like the blanket was charmed, its amazing warmth wrapped around him was already eating away the numbness in his bones, chasing away his violent shivering as he started to feel the edges of the familiar heat inside him starting the wake up again.

“Not a chance.” The man said firmly, trekking across the snow and into the trees. “I don’t know what that water spirit told you to drag you all the way up this mountain, but it wasn’t the truth. You can’t trust anything up here, we’re getting you warm again and then we’re getting you home. What village are you from?”

“Wait, stop. You can put me down, I’m supposed to be here.” Taavi said, struggling against the blanket as they got further away from the path Vand had pointed out to him.

His struggling made the heat inside him flicker, finally high enough that he could grab at it. A delicious heat swept through his body, eating away every bit of cold in him, making him feel alive again, his mind clearing.

The man set him down, eyeing him warily as Taavi pulled the now stifling blanket off from around his shoulders. He flexed his fingers inside his wet silk gloves and carefully pushed the heat up just a bit more, enough the dry his wet clothes, the air steaming around him as the cloth returned to its normal dry warmth. The snow at his feet melted down around him.

“Alright now _that_ I haven’t seen before.” The man said warily, pulling out a necklace of glowing yellow crystals from under his scarf, holding onto them like they could protect him. The reindeer at his side watched Taavi with its ears pinned back in suspicion.

“I’m human, I promise,” Taavi said quickly, tugging his gloves back into place and running a hand through his river-mussed hair. “And thank you very much for your help, I accidentally fell in the river but I’m better now that I’m warm again. Vand was taking me to...see someone, I’m alright, I can keep going now.”

“Well from where I was standing it looked an awful lot like you were being drowned by a nøkk,” The man said flatly. “First question, what magic are you using, second question who was he “taking you to see”? I’m the only person on this mountain. Well, other than the idiots I have to turn back for their own protection.” He looked pointedly at Taavi.

Taavi swallowed. Talking about his abilities with two complete strangers in one night really shouldn’t have been the strangest feeling event of the evening, but it still felt unsettling after a lifetime of carefully hiding and controlling it.

“My name is Prince Taavi of Arendelle, and I was born cursed with the ability to make fire.” Taavi said, standing up straight. “I don’t know why, but the water horse says he can show me. I have to go to a palace of ice to get my answers, do you know where that is?”

“Fire huh?” The man said, rubbing his chin. “Well I’m Kristoff of the trolls, and I carry enough of their magic to know that you being up here at all is bad news. There’s a reason that Sven and I stuck around after everyone else died or left, there’s dark magic on this mountain and it’ll kill anyone who’s dumb enough to try getting near it.”

Kristoff shrugged, “I mean you’ve gotten way closer than most, I’ll give you that, but we’re taking you back home. Now. If you really are the prince then we certainly don’t need you ending up like the last queen. Sven and I have enough to deal with up here without a _fire_ wraith.”

“You know about my aunt?” Taavi asked eagerly.

“That’s really your big takeaway from everything I just said?” Kristoff said flatly.

“Please, that’s why I’m here, no one in the palace ever talks about her,” Taavi said, “Vand said he could take me to see her.”

“Well if he told you that then he’s _definitely_ trying to get you killed.” Kristoff said, shooting a dark look back toward the river. “He’s fae, I can guarantee he’s got his own agenda he hasn’t told you about, his kind don’t give favors for free kid.”

“But he’s my only chance at learning to control my magic!” Taavi pleaded, “Please tell me what you know about my aunt?”

Kristoff growled, dragging a hand down his face and looking at Taavi through his fingers. “Fine. But afterward you’re going straight home.”

“I make no such promise.” Taavi said, folding his arms.

Kristoff muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like _spoiled royal_.

“All I know is that Queen Elsa was born cursed with ice powers.” Kristoff said with a sigh. “As far as we can tell she finally lost control at her coronation and ran up here where she built her ice fortress and turned into some kind of evil ice wraith. She’s the real reason we haven’t had a summer in fifteen years you know, your family tries to keep it hushed up but it has nothing to do with the trolls like everyone says.”

Born cursed. Just like him. Taavi been right then, his suspicions when he’d found the trunk of blue gloves hadn’t been crazy after all. Aunt Elsa _had_ been like him, but with _ice_ instead of fire. Was she always cold the way he was always hot? Did she hate summers the way he hated winter?

Maybe she really could help him then after all, she might even know why their family had these powers in the first place.

“How do you know?” Taavi asked, looking up at Kristoff eagerly, “Who told you?”

“I only know because your grandparents asked the trolls for help ages ago,” Kristoff said. “Back when Queen Elsa was young and having trouble controlling herself I guess.”

“Wait, as in you know _actual_ trolls?” Taavi asked, looking up. Father’s bedtime stories about trolls had never ended well, all tales of kidnapped children, stolen memories, and deals gone wrong.

“You got something against trolls?” Kristoff asked, folding his arms. “I was raised by them, they’re my family. They all moved away when the winter curse hit, but their magic is how Sven and I survive. How we were able to save _you_ from being drowned by a nøkk I might add.”

Kristoff was a _changeling_? That meant he had been kidnapped from his real parents as a child. Did he even remember that?

“He wasn’t trying to drown me, I dismounted before he was ready and I can’t swim.” Taavi said primly, folding his own arms back at Kristoff. “And now as Prince of Arendelle, I command you to take me to the ice palace. Fortress. Whatever it is. Please.”

Kristoff looked at him with a distinctly unimpressed expression. “Sorry your _highness_ but you’re going straight back home.” He said flatly.

“Fine, I’ll go myself then.” Taavi decided, turning around and starting to pick his way back toward the river. It was slow going, his warm boots sinking down in snow that came all the way to his hips with every step.

“No you’re not.” Kristoff said, walking over on his snowshoes and hefting Taavi up out of the snow by his collar. “My job is to keep people away from that fortress and that’s what I’m going to do. Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s treason or something if I let a prince go to his death.”

“Let me go!” Taavi said, reaching back clumsily to whack at Kristoff, the heat inside him spiking in frustration.

There was a yelp and Taavi dropped face first into the snow. When he wiped the snow from his eyes and looked back he saw Kristoff shaking his bare hand like he’d been burned.

“Geez you weren’t kidding about that fire magic.” Kristoff said, hissing a little with pain.

“I’m sorry!” Taavi cried, jumping up. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to burn you, sometimes I can’t control it and-”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Kristoff huffed, bending down to stick his hand in the snow. “Believe me, I’ve been burned worse before on my own campfires. But I guess this means I can’t drag you down the mountain if you don’t want to go, huh?”

Taavi bit his lip, folding his arms tightly against the heat inside him as he shook his head. “I have to go, I have to find my answers.”

Kristoff pulled his hand out of the snow, checking it before wiping it dry on his pants and carefully pulling his leather mitten back on. He looked Taavi over.

“Well...” Kristoff said reluctantly. “I really don’t want you to end up an icicle kid, I’ve seen it happen too many times, it’s not pretty. But if I can’t convince you otherwise I guess that’s that.” He pulled his thick woolen cap off, scratching at his blonde hair and then pulling it back on. “Although if you can ramp up that fire magic of yours I guess there might—and that’s a real slim might—be a shred of a one in a million chance of you surviving...”

“Vand says he’s waiting for me left of the front gate.” Taavi said, “I think he knows my aunt, he can make sure nothing happens to me. And I’ll keep myself warm I promise.”

Kristoff stared at him for a long minute, then let out a long growling sigh. He turned to Sven’s saddlebags, fishing something small out of one and handing it to Taavi. A small wooden whistle.

“Sven and I can't risk getting much closer to the fortress, even with our troll magic.” Kristoff said, handing Taavi the whistle. “But we can take you to the edge of the forest where you’ll be able to see it. When you come to your senses blow the whistle and we’ll do our best to come grab you, if we can get to you while you’re still alive, without us dying, we’ll take you straight home.”

Taavi bi the inside of his cheek as he took the little whistle. “Thanks.” He said, pocketing it.

“Alright then, let’s take you to your death.” Kristoff said humorlessly as he strapped Sven’s saddlebags closed. “This way kid, keep that heat of yours going, you’re going to need it.”

Kristoff and Sven started off across the snow and Taavi hurried to keep up, carefully increasing his internal heat and holding it steady. It was hotter than he’d ever purposefully held it, but the farther they trudged through the dark trees the more he needed it, the temperature seeming to drop a little more with each step. 

His legs were getting tired of pushing through the melting snow, carving a deep path behind him, but the heat inside him only seemed to eagerly grow, happily responding to his call as if pouring from a limitless reservoir he was finally tapping into for the first time.

By the time Kristoff finally pulled them to a stop at the edge of the trees Taavi was grinning in excitement at how much heat he was putting out. He could actually smell the heated scent of his clothing, a near singed smell, but the cold of air meant he was still only melting the snow directly around him. How cold _was_ it up here?

“Alright, there it is.” Kristoff said grimly, gesturing out beyond the trees.

Taavi pushed ahead a little more to see, his heat spiking a bit when he finally saw it.

Vand has said it was an ice palace, Kristoff had described it as an ice fortress. Taavi would have said it was an ice lair. The massive building was easily several times bigger than the Arendelle castle, settled up against the maintain peak as if it had grown there. 

There were sleek purple blue lines and delicate spires of ice to it, as if it had once been a thing of beauty, but it looked as if years had changed and warped its original design. Darker, sharper ice had expanded the fortress, breaking its symmetry. A sea of spikes defensively overgrew the grounds around it like a forest of thorns.

Taavi stared at it mouth open. One person had _made_ all that? Despite its foreboding aura he couldn’t help wondering if he had that kind of power in him too if Aunt Elsa had been able to create something like that all on her own.

He felt the flame inside him leap at the thought. _Let’s try._ It seemed to say. _Let me out, let’s see what we can do._

“So, ready to go home?” Kristoff said, jolting Taavi out of his reverie.

“Not yet.” Taavi said, trying and failing to keep his smile off his face. He knew this was hardly the time for it, but he couldn’t help the primal kind of excitement building in him. It felt like the flame he was always trying to hold back was waking up for the first time. “I’m going in to meet Vand.” Taavi said, holding up the whistle. He didn’t quite notice the way his fingerprints darkened the wood slightly where he touched it. “I’ll call you if I need to.”

Kristoff and Sven exchanged a look that Taavi couldn’t quite read, but he guessed the two of them certainly weren’t reassured by his smile.

“It was nice knowing you kid.” Kristoff said, taking a large step back. “If you become the next curse on this mountain just remember we helped you out and don’t burn us alive, alright?”

Taavi got the feeling that Kristoff wasn’t joking at all.

“I’ll be right back, I promise,” Taavi said. He gave a little bow, “And thank you again for your help, I really do appreciate it, my parents can reward you when we get back to the castle.”

Kristoff gave him a good natured thumbs up as Taavi started forging ahead, but he could tell the man didn’t believe for a second that he was ever going to see any reward at all.

Taavi bit his lip, focusing on the path ahead. Well, he was just going to have to show Kristoff then. He was going to get in, get his answers, and get out safely. The reindeer man didn’t know what he was talking about.

Taavi stepped forward out of the darkness of the trees, his footsteps melting through the snow as he walked, then the snow gave way to thick crusts of ice that resisted his heat. The ice started to get prickly underfoot, making his path an unsteady one, and soon he was carefully ducking through and around huge tangled spikes of dark ice that choked the path entirely.

It took some doing, but Taavi finally reached a slim stairway that spanned a dizzyingly steep abyss between him and the fortress. Or at least it looked like it used to be a slim stairway, the first half was smashed off as if something huge had crashed through it long ago. A jagged mess of ice and snowdrifts had eaten down what little proper stairway there was left, spanning the chasm in a much wider but more dangerous looking bridge.

Taavi wanted badly to look down over the edge of the makeshift bridge, but knew for a fact that if he did that his chances of being permanently rooted to the spot in fear were about a hundred percent.

He swallowed hard as he eyed the precarious pathway, following it up to where he could see the ice fortress looming above him, a front entrance watching him from above.

He absently fiddled with the wooden whistle in his pocket as he bit the inside of his cheek. The excitement he’d felt a minute ago was waning fast, and he could feel the heat inside him turning to one fueled by fear now instead of determination, flaring a bit with each beat of his heart.

But Vand wouldn’t have told him to go to the front door if it hadn’t been safe right? He’d said there would be answers for Taavi in the castle, things that could help him finally control his fire curse. He just _had_ to control it until he got to the other side of the bridge. Melting the bridge while he was on it would only have one very deadly ending.

Taavi took a deep breath, then another and another, chasing the scared heat inside him as far down as he could manage. _Control, don’t be controlled._ He could do this, he could keep control for the minutes it would take to get across.

He looked to his right and found a long thin ice spike, he grabbed it and yanked, cracking it off at the base. Still breathing deeply he used the ice spike to hit the foot of the bridge. It clattered against the solid ice underneath a layer of snow.

Okay. Okay okay okay.

Taavi focused on the cold of the ice in his hands, wishing he could fold his arms to chase back his heat as he took a step into the bridge, keeping to the very middle of it, as far away from the railingless edges as possible.

Take a deep breath to tamp down his heat, tap for solid ground with the ice spike, take a step forward. Deep breath, tap, step. Breath, tap, step.

Taavi inched forward up the steep bridge, humming nervously to himself as he made sure to plant each foot securely before putting his weight on it. Slipping was not an option.

Breath, tap, step. Breath, tap, step.

After a minute of slow going he chanced a glance up and back. He was about halfway to the proper stairs now, he’d have something to hold onto then. If he could just-

A gust of icy mountain wind came whipping around the peak, hitting Taavi from the side just as he took another step. His foot slipped and he slid against a patch of ice, dropping him to his knees. His hum turned to a panicked whine as his fingers dug into the snow, his panic only spiking further as his heat flared and his gloved fingers started melting into the ice beneath the snow.

The ice that was the only thing between him and the gaping abyss below him.

No no _no._

Taavi stumbled to his feet, then slipped again, his adrenaline now surging along with and because of the flaring heat flowing off him. He couldn’t breathe as the ice and snow around and under him became even more slick with ice melt.

He had to get across _now_.

Taavi lunged forward and up the bridge, staying low as he scrambled up the failing bridge, his own powers flaring stronger in fear with every step. He reached the proper bridge part and grabbed at the railing, only for his hand to melt right through it, throwing him even more badly off balance, making him even hotter as all control he’d thought he’d had evaporated as quickly as the snow underfoot.

He could smell singed cloth as he madly propelled himself up the last of the steps, his foot actually catching on the last one as it melted straight through the thin ice, slamming him forward onto his face.

But onto the _cliff_ , not the stairs. As the snow and ice melted around him Taavi nearly cried in relief to see sturdy and unmeltable rock revealed underneath him.

He yanked his foot up onto solid ground after him and looked back at the bridge, panting in heady relief. The bridge stared back at him silently, as foreboding as ever. The patches he’d melted had already refrozen in the frigid mountain air, into dripping icicles off the side or through the small foot and hand shaped divots that had melted through the thinner parts.

A normal person could probably still cross it easily, but in that moment Taavi had to pretend very hard to himself that he _wasn’t_ going to have to cross it again to get back home.

Once his breath started to feel less painful he wrestled back what heat he could back under control. Taavi shakily got to his feet, folding his arms tightly and looking up at the fortress walls soaring high above him. The entire building emanated an eerie pink glow from deep within its dark ice, as if lit by some malevolent force within.

Taavi looked back over the chasm, suddenly wishing very much that Kristoff had come with him. Or that maybe Kristoff had been more convincing when he’d told him to go home...

But no. Taavi had made it this far, he couldn’t turn back now.

Vand had said to look to the left, that there would be a pool of water. Taavi took a deep breath, sticking as close to the ragged walls of the ice palace as he could as he picked his way through the snow and ice, heading away from the front doors. Now he was grateful again that his steps melted through the snow, giving him more solid footholds that wouldn't send him slipping over the cliff edge to his left that he was _not_ going to look at.

His pace quickened as he heard the gurgling trickle of running water, and he felt relief wash through him as he turned a final corner to see a familiar willowy figure come into view.

“Vand!” Taavi called out, hurrying to him.

“There you are prince,” Vand said with a smile, waving him over. The water spirit was standing in a canal of water that was somehow liquid despite the canal itself being made entirely of polished ice. “I was starting to wonder if you’d fallen off a cliff after all.” Vand said cheerfully, “Here, follow me and keep quiet.” He waved Taavi over, taking his hand and helping him into the canal with him, “Keep that heat up this time, I imagine this water isn’t much warmer than the river.”

It might have been the way the freezing water came up to Taavi’s chest, or the fact that he’d just been talking to a real human with Kristoff just now, but for the first time Vand’s distinctly inhuman lack of real concern registered with Taavi. Was he even going to ask about Kristoff?

It wasn’t exactly that the nøkk was unkind, but just that he was...distant... Where Kristoff had been willing to get burned to keep him safe, the water horse only seemed concerned with coaxing him further up the mountain, further into the ice fortress, further towards the admittedly vague reward he’d promised Taavi. Whether or not that happened to involve risking drowning or falling off cliffs.

_He’s fae, I can guarantee he’s got his own agenda he hasn’t told you about, his kind don’t give favors for free kid._

“Hang on,” Taavi said, pulling his arm back from Vand as the water spirit started to lead him through the tunnel in the ice fortresses’ wall. “What exactly are we going to find in there?”

“You’ll see.” Vand said, not even looking back as he continued to walk along the surface of the water.

“Vand, stop.” Taavi said, standing as firmly as he could in lightly flowing water, digging his fingers into the ice edge of the canal. “The man I met back there said that Elsa is dangerous now, that she’s killed people. If I’m about to go into her ice fortress I need to know what to expect. You promised me answers, but I can’t get them if I’m dead.”

Vand looked back to Taavi, tilting his head. He walked back over and crouched down beside Taavi. “Well of course she’s dangerous,” he said simply, his pale eyes shining in the moonlight. “Everything truly beautiful in this world is dangerous.”

“That is not what I mean,” Taavi said, adjusting his grip on the side as his nervous heat began to melt through his hand hold. “I mean what is she, and is she going to kill me if I go in?”

“She is trapped and she is scared.” Vand said quietly, and for the first time Taavi could see real emotion on his face. Sadness maybe? “I won’t let you come to harm, but we will have to be very careful. We are going to sneak in quietly and then I will go to prepare her to meet you. She hasn’t seen anyone but me in a very long time, but I think you are the only person in the world who will be able to reach her.”

“What do you mean reach her?” Taavi asked, somehow feeling both more and less confident at Vand’s answers. It was becoming clear that Vand _did_ have another reason for bringing him up here, just as Kristoff had said. “Is she a ghost? A monster? Is she dead or not?”

“Monsters are only what humans call things they both fear and cannot control.” Vand said, looking at Taavi hard, “Isn’t that why you keep your powers secret? Because you fear what other humans will call you if they found out? Because you’re afraid they would know the answer to the question you’re afraid of answering yourself?”

“Stop talking in riddles.” Taavi demanded, dodging the question, “Vand, I need to know if I can trust you or not.”

“You can trust me.” Vand said, “Any other human? Perhaps not, but you’re cut from the same cloth as Elsa and I. Your magic sets you apart, but it sets you among us as well. Elsa is more spirit than human now, but it is the human part of her that is caught and tangled, trapping her here. My hope is that you can help her untangle it and then she will be able to assist you back. The complexities of human emotion are...not within my realm of expertise, which is why I need your help.”

Well at least half a cryptic answer was better than no answer.

“You know if you’d been this vague and mystical sounding back at the castle I wouldn’t have come with you.” Taavi huffed.

Vand laughed, a musical flowing sound that somehow made him feel a little less annoyed.

“Yes you would have.” Vand said with a grin, “You’re too much like your mother and father to stay away from what you want. And besides, your magic pulls you toward the truth. Which is perhaps the most dangerous thing of all.” Vand took Taavi’s hand and stood, pulling him up to stand on the surface of the water with him, the water feeling solid under his feet. “Now, stay close to me and keep quiet, keep your heat as high as you can and on the ready.” He paused, looking at Taavi. “Does that sound alright?”

It didn’t, it still sounded like something Taavi wanted to ask a million more questions about to get specific details. But Vand was right about one thing, Taavi was in the realm of magic now. Taavi had known at least that much when he’d agreed to come, and anyone who had ever heard a fairy tale in their lives knew that when it came to magic you were never going to be shown all the answers at once.

Taavi wasn’t going to be able to have complete control of the situation and he was going to have to accept that at least a little for now.

“Let’s go.” Taavi said, nodding. “Just...warn me if I’m about to do something stupid again, like at the river.”

Vand chuckled, then started down the tunnel, Taavi in tow, “I’ll do my best.”

Taavi tried to return the smile but only managed to bite his lip hard enough to make it bleed as he followed Vand deeper into the fortress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out on tumblr to see this story's art and chatting, my ask box is always open for story questions/comments and general exclamations. -> @im-fairly-whitty


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